Cobholm Underpass Mural

It is good to see the Cobholm Underpass Mural has at last been completed after a false start in 2010, when the ARC Artists Group was one of the  lucky voluntary groups to be approved by people living in Cobholm, Southtown and Halfway House wards for a Neighbourhood Management  “Your Neighbourhood, Your Decision” grant to run this project.  Katarzyna Coleman, Chair of ARC, submitted a proposal to run workshops with local residents and the young people who use the nearby sports facilities to design and paint a mural in the underpass in Cobholm. However, thanks to difficulties getting permission for temporary closure of the underpass to traffic, the project was put on hold.

The project was finally completed in September 2012 by eight young people taking part in a four week project within the government’s National Citizen Service Project scheme, which aims to offer young people opportunities not generally available to them and to equip them with life skills whilst giving them a chance to offer something back to their neighbourhoods.  The young people used the theme of the Olympics, Diamond Juibilee and youth culture generally to create decorative graffitti-type designs in strong, bright colours.  The mural was unveiled by Anthony Ogogo, the Lowestoft boxing star.

Kate at the Underpass with Chris and Neil from Addison Decorations Ltd. who offered to support the first proposal for the project with professional advice.

The Neighbourhood Management team welcomes residents to come and talk about anything to do with life in the their wards.

Great Yarmouth Heritage Walks

Heritage Guides have organised three different walks to discover hidden Great Yarmouth:

• The Rows, Fishwives and Body Snatchers, starting at St.Nicholas Church
• Great Yarmouth’s Medieval Town Wall, starting at St. Nicholas Church
• Sea, Sand and Spending a Penny, starting at Great Yarmouth Tourist Information Centre, Marine Parade

These guided walks take place from May to October and cost £3.75 adults, £1.50 children (under 7 free).  Tickets are available on the day from the tour guide.  Dates and times and further details about walks are available on www.heritage-walks.co.uk or at Great Yarmouth Tourist Information Centre at 25 Marine Parade, 01493 846346.  Other special walks are also available at specific times over the summer period.  See guide for details.

Also on Thursdays during August – 1st September and starting at the Star Hotel, South Quay at 7.00 pm, Eerie Tales and Yarmouth Yarns, scary tales from the Rows handed on down the centuries (not suitable for children under 7 yrs. old) –  includes a visit to Great Yarmouth Potteries and costs £7.00 adults, £5 children  7-16 yrs old.  Booking essential on 01493 846346.

Great Yarmouth Spring Festival 2010, St. Nicholas Parish Church

The St. Nicholas Parish Church Preservation Trust has organised a Spring Festival to raise funds for the £750,000 repair to the organ and the tower pinnacles.  Donations are always welcome and can be  made on-line to www.sncpt.co.uk

Gardener’s Question Time and Demonstration of Flower Arranging: Wednesday 12th May, 6.00 p.m. for 6.30-9.30 p.m. Tickets £10 includes buffet (£5 for college and Priory students).  Venue: St. Nicholas Church. Bar available. Tickets available from the Priory Centre, Mon-Fri 9.00 -17.00 hrs or from Paul Davies 01493 843647.

Lecture by General Sir Richard Dannatt, GCB, CBE, MC: “A Look Back, A Look Forward.  Reflections on 40 Years a Soldier” Friday, 14th May, 7.30 p.m., tickets £10. Venue: Masonic Royal Assembly Rooms, Albert Square. Bar available. Tickets available from the Priory Centre, Mon-Fri 9.00-17.oo hrs or from Paul Davies, 01493 843647.

Saturday 15th May, 10.00-16.00 hrs, admission free. Venue: St. Nicholas Church: Tower open 10.00-14.00 hrs, exhibiton of prints and maps of Great Yarmouth, display of Church silverware, organ recital by John Stephens 12.30 -13.30 hrs. Guided tour of the church and its history, 14.00-15.00 hrs.

Full Choral Evensong using the 1662 Prayer Book: Sunday 16th May 6.30 p.m., no ticket required.  Venue: St. Nicholas Church

Take Three Cooks: Cooking demonstration sponsored by the Imperial Hotel.  Tickets £25 includes lunch.  Venue: The Imperial Hotel, 01493 842000 (limited to 80 people).

Dawson Turner (1775-1858)

After attending Dr. Andrew Moore’s talk about Dawson Turner (1775-1858) delivered on the 5th February 2010, one of the excellent series of Friday talks at the Time and Tide Museum, I borrowed the book he referred to from the reference section in the Central Library: ‘Dawson Turner, A Norfolk Antiquary and his Remarkable Family’, edited by Nigel Goodman, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 2007.

Yarmouth Priory by John Sell Cotman, commissioned by Dawson Turner

I am a great admirer of John Sell Cotman and was familiar with the name of Dawson Turner as a significant patron, but was nevertheless amazed to hear about the quality of the art collection he accumulated at Bank House (now Barclays Bank) on Hall Plain. Turner, a partner at the Turner Gurney Bank set up in Yarmouth in 1781, first won renown as a botanist. He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, (founded in 1788 by the Norwich botanist James Edward Smith). Of his large collection of botanical drawings, many were by William Jackson Hooker, a protégé who went on to marry Maria, the eldest daughter.  It is interesting to see the important role female botanists were able to contribute in these early days of collecting and classifying. Turner prized the drawings of Ellen Hitchins, for example, whom he greatly admired.

Once Turner began to collect works of art, he proved to have an impressive eye for quality. He was in advance of his time in prizing the beautiful Bellini in his possession, Mother and Child Enthroned with St. Peter and St. Paul and a Donor, 1505, now in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. He acquired an exquisite Poussin landscape painting, View of Tivoli, and another lovely landscape painting by Hobbema, which was his favourite. Dutch and Flemish masters featured strongly as would be expected, given the close trading and cultural links that existed. As well as the wonderful Christening Feast by Jan Steen, Turner had examples of Gerrit Dou and Aelbert Cuyp amongst many other artists from across the North Sea. He also had a portrait of Catherine Parr by Holbein, a Canaletto, a studio sketch by Rubens and work attributed to Van Dyke and Titian. Of the English masters, he had two paintings by Sir David Wilkie, a landscape by Richard Wilson, family portraits commissioned from Thomas Phillips RA, and works by Crome and Cotman, the last three being friends, with Cotman and Crome employed consecutively as drawing tutors to Turner’s talented daughters.

Not only that, Turner accumulated an amazing collection of manuscripts, folios, autographed letters, illustrations and books of all sorts. He was a most unusual pioneer in collecting contemporary ephemera – newspaper cuttings, advertisements, shop bills, railway tickets, lottery notices and such. He had all his collections beautifully bound in calf or Russian leather by Yarmouth bookbinders of whom he said “that Yarmouth yields only to London in the excellence of its binders”. I could happily create a long list of items in his collection which excite me, but it would be an indulgence. I will only mention Book of Job (1825) by William Blake and correspondence with that unique genius, Turner’s Liber Studorium which he bought from J.M.W. Turner himself and a 15th Century Flemish Book of Hours – what a privilege for his many distinguished guests to be able to browse such a collection!

Dawson Turner was supported in all this work by his most congenial and accomplished wife Mary Palgrave of Coltishall. Eight out of their eleven children survived, six of which were daughters. These were all taught drawing, etching and lithography, not only by Cotman and Crome but also the likes of James Heath ARA and John Varley who visited Bank House. Drawings and prints produced by Mary and her daughters were used to illustrate Dawson Turner’s publications, including catalogues of his collections, works on Medieval architecture in Norfolk and Normandy, portraits to accompany letters which he also collected and bound, and so on. It was very unusual for women to be engaged so industriously on work destined for publication, one of the many features of this fascinating family.

Bank House now and Bank House then, a watercolour created by Father Stephen Horton, specially for this article, from an original print (see note below). 

Mary died after 54 years of marriage, and one year later, in 1851 and much to everybody’s amazement, Dawson Turner, aged 76, eloped with a widow called Rosamund Matilda Duff, who was thirty five years his junior and of humble origins. They married in Gretna Green and moved to London to avoid the disapproval of family, friends and colleagues. Sadly his collections were sold after 1852 when he faced financial difficulties.

Whenever I now cross Haven Bridge towards Barclays,  I take great pleasure in thinking about the Turner family and what they were able to achieve in the early 19th Century .

Note:   For more information about Stephen Horton’s work, have a look at the gallery on the Prinknash Abbey website by clicking here.

Priory Gallery Group visit to Art Collection

Members of the Priory Gallery Group, led by Mary Spragg, were the first to take part in the Transitions Project, with a visit to the Art Collection Store on the 26th March, 2010.  The visit was supervised by Emma Davison, Curator at the Great Yarmouth Museums Service (NMAS).  Jean Fisher, Susan Hacon, Kathleen Hewitt, Gillian Southgate,  Jean Stacey and Mary met up with Bridget Heriz and Emma in the Charles Dickens room at the Central Library to discuss the project and to learn about the art collection and were then able to enjoy perusing rarely seen works at close quarters.  Everybody found something to inspire them and will go on to develop some work of their own towards the exhibition which will take place in November 2010. 

The Priory Gallery Group came together two years ago when the National Gallery offered an outreach programme offering access to the collection and talks to members of the community in Great Yarmouth.  Those people who took advantage of this wonderful opportunity have now stayed together to form a group which meets on a monthly basis to share their interest.  A number will be able to study further with the National Gallery programme later this year.

Jane Hall at the Upstairs Gallery

The Upstairs Gallery at the Courtyard, Main Cross Road, has opened in time for Easter.   Jane Hall is going to be the featured artist for the month of May 2010 (1st-29th May) and will be at the gallery every Sunday to coincide with Open Studios month.

Supporting local shops

The lad selling Big Issue outside Marks and Sparks was having a hard time today, nobody was buying.  But I was really glad I purchased a copy as otherwise I would perhaps not have found out about the Wedge Card project launched this week in London (22nd March 2010)  by Diana Bird, daughter of the founder of Big Issue.  Wedge Card is a scheme to support local shops and community.  “Local shops are the buzz on your High Streets. They are the friendly faces, the unique products and the personalised advice. They are the lifeblood of our communities. Wedge Card is a reward card for these local and independent shops that gives you discounts for shopping locally and helps promote and protect independent traders. We want you to take a walk around your local shops with your Wedge Card and feel the buzz on your local High Street!”  I wonder if such a scheme could work in Great Yarmouth and Gorleston?    To find out more about Wedge Card click here

Beast Quest at Great Yarmouth Library

Great Yarmouth’s Circus Story

‘Showtime’, a vibrant exhibition about the history of the circus in Great Yarmouth, opens at the Time and Tide Museum on Saturday 27th March and will run until 31st October.  Items of marvellous memorabilia collected by Peter Jay, owner of Great Yarmouth’s Hippodrome, and Don  Stacey, are included in the exhibition, along with studies by Bruer Tidman and paintings by Katherine Hamilton of the modern day circus .

Amongst the related events at the Time and Tide are Rollo’s Circus Skills Workshops on Mondays between 26th July and 30th August, and Circus Sunday, 8th August, 10.00 -17.00 hrs.   For more information about events visit www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk.

Visitors to the exhibition will receive vouchers for £2.50 of a full price adult seat at the Hippodrome.

The Time and Tide Museum on Blackfriars Road, Great Yarmouth, is open Monday – Sunday, 10.00 – 17.00 hrs.  (Note: Winter opening hours from 2nd November 2010- 31 March 2011 are 10.-16.00 hrs Mon-Friday and 10.00-16.00 hrs Sat. and Sun.) 2010 admission to the Time and Tide museum:  adult  £4.50, concessions £3.80, young person (4-16) £3.30.  Discounts are available for pre-booked groups.  For more information tel: 01493 743930 or visit Norfolk Museums website www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk

For full information about all the museums in Great Yarmouth, with admissions times and prices , click here and download the 2010 Great Yarmouth Heritage Quarter Guide.

Yarmouth Community Homepage

A new website initiated by Norfolk County Council was launched today (23rd March 2010) at Great Yarmouth Library.  The library has been chosen to become a pilot for this new  initiative which aims to put all relevant information about Great Yarmouth and Gorleston  into one place.  The website will achieve this by having live feeds from other local websites to showcase the latest news, blogs, forums and events across the borough.  All local residents and workers will be able to upload information, photographs and supply live feeds from their own websites.

Already there are some interesting posts about St. George’s Chapel Plans and Local Government Review.  Take a look by clicking on the following link:  http://yarmouth.norfolkhomepage.org.uk/